CIA files show intelligence services wanted to learn from South America’s 1970s campaign of terror against leftwing subversion

by Uki Goñi in Buenos AiresApr 16, 20193 minutes

Pictures of some of the thousands killed in Chile during Operation Condor, a top-secret program among South American dictatorships. Photograph: Victor Rojas/AFP/Getty Images

British, West German and French intelligence agencies sought advice from South America’s bloody 1970s dictatorships on how to combat leftwing “subversion”, according to a newly declassified CIA document.

The European intelligence services wanted to learn about “Operation Condor”, a secret programme in which the dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador conspired to kidnap and assassinate members of leftwing guerrilla groups in each other’s territories.